NAD - At Mars Specialist
- marqueemoon
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NAD - At Mars Specialist
Reposting the seller's pics. Maybe I'll take some better ones of my own. I dunno. It's an amp.
I've been looking for a simple dual 6V6 head for a while to get a little more clean headroom than my VHT Special 6 can provide. Played a bunch of amps and watched tons of demos, and these little guys were one of the front runners. They're built on a Bell & Howell Filmosound amp chassis with a mix of new and old parts. This one has a 3 position bass rolloff switch on the back added by the builder. That option in particular was pretty appealing to me as I prefer open back cabs and they can get a little murky in the low end at higher volumes when the amp is breaking up.
Only got a chance to play it for a little bit, but I'm super impressed so far. It's very touch sensitive, and really brings out the overtones in single note stuff. I think the bass rolloff in the middle position is going to be my jam for band situations. At a living room volume the tone right at noon was good, but there's plenty of treble boost on tap. Sounds great with my Talisman and trem too. Very bell-like with the Silvertone 1303/U2 lipsticks. I feel like it's a bit more mid-forward than the classic Princeton sound, but not drastically so. It actually reminds me a lot of the Supro 1600 which I absolutely loved aside from the inevitable combo rattle.
I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the cabinet too. The tolex is well done and everything is tight and solid. From what I understand the hole above the IEC jack was present in the original chassis. The jack is solid though, so I'm not worried about. I guess I'd prefer it had corners, but I'll probably get a cover or case for it before too long anyway.
I wish our new practice space was done so I can really open it up, Hopefully in a few weeks.
- stevejamsecono
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Re: NAD - At Mars Specialist
Oooooh congrats. I'd been interested in one of these for awhile as well, so I'm glad to see someone in the family has bought one. Keep us posted on how it works out in a band situation!
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- marqueemoon
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Re: NAD - At Mars Specialist
If it's as good loud as it is quiet I think it'll be great. I really like the compact size too. This + my 1x12 cab have a poor man's Benson Monarch thing going on.stevejamsecono wrote:Oooooh congrats. I'd been interested in one of these for awhile as well, so I'm glad to see someone in the family has bought one. Keep us posted on how it works out in a band situation!
- OffYourFace
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Re: NAD - At Mars Specialist
very cool. Although i think they could've done a better job installing the AC socket, like using a plate to cover up the cut-up mesh.
I had a converted Bell PA amp with 6V6s that sounded amazing.
I had a converted Bell PA amp with 6V6s that sounded amazing.
- marqueemoon
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Re: NAD - At Mars Specialist
Finally got a chance to open this thing up tonight. It's actually two amps in one. In low power mode it has a tweedy bark, but well balanced and very sensitive to pick attack. In high power mode it's much brighter and a little more scooped. It would be great for some compressed single coil clean sounds.
- Embenny
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Re: NAD - At Mars Specialist
Is it a pentode/triode switch, or does it have another way of achieving a "low power" mode?marqueemoon wrote:Finally got a chance to open this thing up tonight. It's actually two amps in one. In low power mode it has a tweedy bark, but well balanced and very sensitive to pick attack. In high power mode it's much brighter and a little more scooped. It would be great for some compressed single coil clean sounds.
My experience with 6V6's in triode mode has been that I never prefer it to the regular pentode mode, but it sounds like you're getting two good tones out of it, which is awesome.
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- marqueemoon
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Re: NAD - At Mars Specialist
Not sure how it's accomplished. Now that I've had some time playing with my drummer with it high power is the way to go for that, but the low power mode is much more useful than on my VHT Special 6 which sounds anemic at 1W.mbene085 wrote:Is it a pentode/triode switch, or does it have another way of achieving a "low power" mode?marqueemoon wrote:Finally got a chance to open this thing up tonight. It's actually two amps in one. In low power mode it has a tweedy bark, but well balanced and very sensitive to pick attack. In high power mode it's much brighter and a little more scooped. It would be great for some compressed single coil clean sounds.
My experience with 6V6's in triode mode has been that I never prefer it to the regular pentode mode, but it sounds like you're getting two good tones out of it, which is awesome.
- marqueemoon
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Re: NAD - At Mars Specialist
Still loving this amp. I usually use it in low power mode at practice because the layout of our tiny room means I'm right on top of it so I can't really open it up.
For live use high power has a little more clarity and chime. I can get anything from ringing jazzy sounds to icepick post-punk just by varying pick attack.
It doesn't "take pedals" so much as it kind of melds with them. If you try to do anything too radical it can sound kinda bad, but subtle boost, verb, trem, etc... work great. I could be quite happy plugging straight in. Provided the person running sound was on their game it would be fine.
For live use high power has a little more clarity and chime. I can get anything from ringing jazzy sounds to icepick post-punk just by varying pick attack.
It doesn't "take pedals" so much as it kind of melds with them. If you try to do anything too radical it can sound kinda bad, but subtle boost, verb, trem, etc... work great. I could be quite happy plugging straight in. Provided the person running sound was on their game it would be fine.